In Southern Russia, power consumption must be reduced
Due to large heat waves and the failure of an atomic reactor in the South of Russia, power consumption has to be restricted in many regions. Planned power outages affect consumers in the Rostov region, as Governor Vasili Golubev wrote on his Telegram channel. The local power supplier in Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean Peninsula announced power cuts of twelve hours a day - two hours with electricity, then two hours without.
The cause of the problems was the automatic shutdown of a reactor block at the Russian Rostov Nuclear Power Plant on Tuesday afternoon. The failure caused approximately 2.5 million people to be without power at one point. Areas from Krasnodar on the Black Sea coast to over 200 kilometers away in Dagestan on the Caspian Sea were affected. At the same time, the daily power consumption for Southern Russia reached a historical high on Tuesday, according to the responsible authority. In the heat, many refrigeration units were in operation.
However, there was no emergency situation at the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant; the reactor went back online this morning. In Rostov, the temperature is currently measured at 38 degrees Celsius, in Stavropol at 34 degrees, and in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula at 32 degrees. Southern Russia and the neighboring Ukraine have been fighting the same heatwave as the Balkans and Mediterranean countries for days. In Ukraine, power outages and shutdowns have been part of daily life since weeks due to the fact that the aggressor Russia destroyed a large part of the Ukrainian power plants.**
- Because of the high electric consumption in the South of Russia due to the ongoing heatwave, the government had to restrict power use in several regions.
- Although Russia's Rostov region, specifically, was affected by the planned power outages, it was actually because of Russia's own atomic reactor's failure in the South that led to this situation.
- Despite the 12-hour power cuts in Sevastopol, many residents continue to run their refrigeration units because of the extreme heat, contributing to the region's increased electric consumption.
